Aliens: Outbreak
by fakeaddressenator
Summary: An Alien Outbreak has occured in New York city. Within one week the city is consumed and the government takes drastic action. Now the city lays in decaying ruins and the survivors must fight to stay alive in this post apocolyptic wastland.
1. Prologue

Prologue 

New York City

2156 AD

The humans fought the creatures for a long, gruelling month. The creatures spread at an incredible rate, the Colonial Marines and local police forces were on the razors edge to hold them back. But no matter how many of the nests they destroyed, they would come back in full strength.

Chaos. Utter chaos.

No one knew exactly how the creatures arrived on Earth. But rumour had it that the Weyland-Yutani Corporation had something to do with it. It underestimated the alien species it ever so longed to have. Someone screwed up, and the rest of the city was paying for it.

The aliens were nesting in random locations, the Marines were called everywhere. Shopping malls, apartment buildings, factories, skyscrapers everywhere. They went in and planted a bomb in the Queen Alien's chamber, retreated to the exits burning the nest as they went as they knew the aliens were afraid of fire. They evacuated the area and blew down building containing the nest. It was effective but somehow an alien will go and start a new nest elsewhere.

The Marines solider count was dropping as fast as the population. The aliens were spreading to residential areas; soldier (or drone) aliens were reported ambushing people as they entered their homes. The police could not hold them back for their inferior pistols were no substitute for the Marines heavy duty weaponry.

Nothing the Marines tried seemed to slow the alien infestation down, the aliens just kept spreading and spreading. The American government had no choice but to use their last resort. They had an experimental bomb which they created for any form of contagion in a populated area. Giving the circumstances, they were prepared to use it.

All the welcome citizens of New York were given seats on a spacecraft to leave for the orbiting space stations. Millions of people were lifted off the planet to safety.

All those not welcome on the spacecrafts were told to go into a bunker or a metal walled establishment. People panicked, they feared this to be the end of the world. Crowds formed in the streets, blocking roads to get to shelters, the police could do nothing to stop them. Most of their forces were depleted in the effort to stop the aliens.

The Marines had pulled out for they weren't as expendable as the local authorities. They were to be given a long rest for a possible recovery operation after the bombs effects had ceased.

The crowds would become violent, pushing and shoving, brawls began to form, and some people were killed. The crowds lasted for days.

It was on October 21st that the gigantic struggle for New York City between human and alien ended. At 7:50pm, the bomb hit.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 

New York City

1 week later

Ryan woke with a start. The bright lamp above him made him squint, making his vision fuzzy. He looked away and he opened his eyes.

He was in a basement of some sort. The walls were solid concrete and the door leading out was thick iron. He recognised it as his own basement. His emergency gear (first aid kit etc.) was on the floor, and a home radio was sitting on a table. Ryan walked over to it and began to search for a channel.

Every station was static. He turned the knob over and over and over until it broke off the radio. He threw the knob down in frustration. He felt a sharp pain in his arm.

_What the?_ he thought.

His arm was attached to a drip. The drip was attached to an empty bag that Ryan assumed used to be filled with liquid food.

_I must have been down here for a while, but why?...I can't remember!_

He looked up at the door.

_Maybe someone can tell me why I'm down here._

He walked up the stairs to the iron door of the basement. He undid the latches, pushed the doors open and stepped up out into the next room.

Or what was left of it.

_Oh my god... _he thought.

Ryan entire house was reduced to rubble. He could see the sky from where he stood in his previous main corridor. The clouds in the sky were a deep orange. The clouds covered the sky like a stormy night.

All the buildings within Ryan's sight were rubble. Some bits were still intact but most of them were piled on the ground. Everything was blazoned in a fiery orange. Cars were upside down, wrecked, and smashed.

Ryan walked out of what remained of his house. He strolled down the rubble covered streets. He kept walking looking at all the buildings; he recognised fast food places, apartments, and schools.

Ryan walked into a primary school. Or the remains of a primary school. He walked into a class room, the tables and chairs were all over the place, maps were burned to a crisp, books everywhere. It looked as though people had left in a hurry though the accident that caused this probably didn't give them time.

Ryan picked up a book, it was a novel.

He was about to look through it when a noise made him jump. It came from an air vent in the floor. The air vent opened and the most terrifying sight met Ryan's eyes.

Some sort of creature stood before him. It stood taller than a man; its skin was like black glass. It had no visible eyes and its head was elongated and slightly banana shaped. It had razor sharp teeth as long as fingers that were permanently bared. It had four prongs on its back, two thin arms and two thin legs both with sharp claws. It had a tail long enough to be held in front of it and on the end of it was a lethal looking claw. It was moist and had a transparent slime dripping form its mouth.

The creature opened its mouth and let out a slow, loud breath as another smaller mouth came out on a stalk. Ryan backed away as the creature crawled nearer. He hit a crumpled wall and couldn't move any further. The alien stopped right in front of him. It lowered its head to his head height. It retracted its mouth ready to strike. Ryan began to shake.

Suddenly something broke though the alien's chest. It was a spear of some sort. The alien whirled around; Ryan looked over its shoulder.

A man stood in front of them holding a staff with the tail claw of an alien on each end. He wore armour of some sort, looking more closely Ryan realised that he was wearing the skin of an alien over his torso, arms and legs. He had a thin scar diagonally down the centre of his face.

The alien leaped at the man and knocked him over. They wrestled on the ground franticly. The man somehow flipped the alien to on top of him and kicked it into a wall. The alien seemed slightly dazed from the impact and did not react quickly as the man leaped into the air, twirling his double-ended spear as he went. As he reached the alien, in mid-air, he spun his spear, slicing one end into the alien's neck and then plunging the other end through the alien's head as he landed. The alien went limp instantly.

The man stood up and pulled his spear out of the alien's head. He then turned to Ryan.

"Well don't just stand there, let's go!" he said.

Ryan slowly walked towards him, keeping a careful eye on the alien.

"It's ok, it's dead." The man said.

Ryan took his eyes of the alien and finally spoke up

"What happened here?" he said.

The man looked surprised.

"Where the hell have you been?"

"I woke up in my basement about twenty minutes ago."

The man paused.

"I'll explain everything when we meet up with the others and make it back to base camp."

They started to walk to the door.

"My name is Cheetah by the way, what's yours?"

"Ryan."


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 

The two of them left the school's rubble and onto the streets with Cheetah in the lead. He constantly looked left and right, he stopped at the slightest sound. His throwing spear was in his hand and his double-ended spear was strapped on his back.

Suddenly they both heard a slow, loud breath. Cheetah thrust his arm out to stop Ryan. The breath sounded again only closer now.

Cheetah looked at Ryan.

"Run," he said.

They ran down the street at full pelt. Behind them, some ten aliens burst out from behind piles of rubble and chase after them on four legs. The aliens screamed in frustration of their failed ambush but just kept running.

"Keep going! Don't look back!" Cheetah yelled.

Ryan kept running though he was starting to tire. Half of the aliens were off the street and running across the walls of the ruined buildings in the street.

Suddenly, some gunshots went off and the aliens on the street were picked off at random. The bodies slid for a few seconds from the momentum of running.

"Yes! Help has arrived!" Cheetah yelled.

Ryan was about to ask what help when they rounded a corner but didn't when they stopped suddenly. Four more people stood in front of them, two women and two men. They each held a homemade weapon of some sort and wore the alien skin armour. All the weapons had an alien's tail claw as a blade. One woman had a sword; the other had a small knife with a small claw for a blade. One of the men had sword and the other had a throwing spear and sword.

Cheetah stood with them.

"Ryan get down!" he yelled.

Ryan dived off the street. The aliens came pelting around the corner and the humans charged at them. The aliens were bowelled over. They expected to fight two people but now they were completely surprised by five.

Each human chose an alien to fight. So the battle was split into five separate battles.

One of the women fought hard with her sword slashing as fast as the alien could slash its claws. She swung her sword into the alien's chest and its yellow blood spilt onto the ground. The alien leapt onto her and pinned her to the ground and knocked the sword out of her hands. The alien opened its mouth ready to strike its second mouth into her head. Seconds before it struck, the women deliberately convulsed, knocking the alien off balance. Its second mouth shot out only off target and into the women's shoulder.

She screamed in pain. The alien flung her across the street. She landed right next to her sword. She picked it up just as the alien leapt into the air after her. She threw her sword at the alien and it hit it in mid-air. The alien was flung back into a wall were the sword impaled it.

One of the men was parrying alien strikes with his spear. He was fighting fast but not with much strength behind the blows. The alien had the upper hand in this fight. It clawed and struck with its tail at amazing speed. It was too fast for the man to keep up with. The alien grabbed his spear with its bare hands and whacked him over the head with its tail. The claw didn't hit him but it was enough to knock the man over. The alien snapped the spear in half and leaped at the man on the ground.

It landed on him and they wrestled with their bare hands, tumbling over each other. The alien slashed and clawed as the man kicked and punched. The alien's claws cut deep all over the man and blood simply poured out of the cuts it inflicted. The man rolled the alien off him and slowly got up. The alien writhed on the ground before leaping up onto its feet.

The man drew his sword and stood to face the alien. It leaped at him immediately. Just as it reached him, the man swung his sword into its side. The strike wasn't strong enough to cut deep but it threw the alien off course. It landed hard and remained still. The man walked towards it. The alien suddenly leaped on top of him and pinned him to the ground. It hissed and opened its mouth.

The second mouth punched through the man's forehead and splattered its contents on the road. The alien roared in triumph and charged over to join the alien fighting Cheetah.

The second woman was fighting with speed and not so much strength. The only weapon she had was an alien finger as a knife. But she fought with kicks and punches that she delivered faster than the alien could slash.

She grabbed the alien's slashing hand and twisted it backwards. She then spun on one foot and did a back kick into its head. The alien fell backwards. The women leapt into the air. She spun and planted her foot into the alien's neck and twisted the left arm of the alien off with the other foot.

The alien made an inhuman scream and pushed with all it's might at the women. The woman was flipped off but she gained control of her movement in mid air and landed perfectly.

The alien jumped up and wriggled its body in a way so that it flung a lot of its blood at the women. The women twisted and spun so none of the blood splattered on her. The blood landed on the ground and started to eat away at the asphalt. The alien charged at the women. When it reached her she jumped and forward flipped over the alien and landed behind it. She grabbed the alien from behind by the throat and slit its throat with her knife and let it slump to the ground.

The other man was holding an alien back with his sword. He held his sword horizontal in front of him, parallel with his shoulders. He held it at each end and the alien held it exactly the same. Neither of them were struggling, they both just stood there with only the sword in between them. They both just held it and stared into each others faces.

The alien stared into the man's eyes. It breathed slowly and heavily. Its mouth was shut and the transparent goo was dripping off it.

The man would have stared into the alien's eyes if he could see them. The alien's have no visible eyes just a smooth black head with a mouth.

The alien fired its second mouth at the man and the man moved his head to one side and avoided it. This gave him the opportunity to swing the sword between them at the alien.

Most of the alien's fingers were sliced off, and the sword lightly struck its chest. The alien leapt back and the man charged forward.

He hit the alien head on and slammed it into a wall. He then rammed his sword through its chest and stuck it to the wall. The alien fought to get at him but the sword was to strong and wouldn't budge.

The man just paced in front of his enemy for awhile. He watched it with disgust; he glared at its desperation to kill him. The beast had no individuality.

He then spun around and kicked it hard in the head. So hard that its head contracted.

Cheetah was flying around as he fought his two opponents. One alien leapt at him and he forward flipped over it and kicked the second alien across the street. He landed and spun around to catch the first alien again as it leapt back at him and he used his spear head staff to fling it into the second alien.

Both aliens got to their feet and looked back towards Cheetah. It seemed as though they were strategising on a way to kill him. Cheetah decided to wait for them to make their move. _This ought to be interesting_ he thought.

The aliens suddenly peeled off and circled Cheetah. One of them began to move in closer. It then jumped at Cheetah.

Cheetah swung his staff and caught the alien and swung to parry it. But then the other alien leapt at Cheetah. He was too busy fighting the other alien to have noticed.

Oh he had noticed. He had defiantly noticed. Cheetah swung his spear out and wedged it through the second alien and slammed it into the ground. The alien writhed and squirmed.

Cheetah then twirled his staff with the alien still on it and flung it off. The millisecond that the alien was flung off the staff, Cheetah leapt into the air after it. He was practically right beside it and he twisted around so he was facing backwards from the direction he flew.

Cheetah swung one end of his staff into the stomach of the alien and sent it going at a slight upward angle as it travelled forwards and a second later he hit it with the other end of the staff and sent it rocketing in the opposite direction.

The alien hit a wall head first. Its head was totally destroyed and its body hit the ground with a thud. Cheetah landed and walked back to the alien pinned to the ground. He stared at it as it writhed on the ground. He then grabbed the spear in its chest and pulled it up so it sliced its throat.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 

Ryan lay on the side of the street. He was breathing fast and beginning to hyperventilate. He was still in complete awe of the battle he had just witnessed.

Cheetah walked over to Ryan and pulled him to his feet. Ryan looked up at him.

"Ryan, I'd like you to meet the members of our pack." Cheetah said. He turned and pointed each one out as he went.

"This lady here is Fox. She is the only one of us that relies less on weapons but more on her speed."

Fox put her dagger away and shook Ryan's hand.

"Now," Cheetah continued "This gentleman here is Snake. He is stealthy and strikes very quickly and accurately."

Snake nodded at Ryan. He seemed very isolated from the others.

"And finally," Cheetah said "This woman here is Puma. She can strike fast only she is working on the agility."

Puma held one hand over her wounded shoulder and held her sword in the other. She put her sword down and shook Ryan's hand.

"Where are the others?" Cheetah asked.

"Hawk and Eagle are coming." Fox replied.

Sure enough two people came running around a corner. They each carried the outer casing of an alien head with the mouth open.

"Now Ryan this is Eagle and Hawk." Cheetah told him.

Hawk waved his hand. He smiled and stood with the others. Eagle bowed to him and smiled. She had a wiggle in the hips as she walked to the others.

Ryan finally said something.

"What's with the skulls?"

Hawk stepped forward.

"They are the casing for our guns. We have some military issue weaponry and they are so valuable that we encased them in an alien skull. The alien's bleed acid you see and their acid blood can't melt their own skin."

"That's the same reason we were the alien skin as armour too." Eagle said.

Ryan looked at the alien skull guns. Inside it was an M41-A Pulse Rifle with a pump action grenade launcher. The standard Colonial Marines weapon. The mouth of the alien skull was open so when the gun was fired the bullets came out there.

Ryan had another question.

"What happened here? To New York?"

Cheetah looked surprised.

"You mean you don't know?"

"No I don't, I just woke up in my basement."

Cheetah looked at the others. He thought for a bit.

"We'll explain when we get back to base." He said. "Let's go."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 

Cheetah lead the group through the post-apocalyptic streets of New York. They travelled in silence and with constant vigilance. Ryan was in the centre, the others believed he should be in the centre so he would have the best protection should they be ambushed.

Ryan now saw the full destruction of the city; the damage got more extensive the further into the city they went. But oddly enough, the further they went in the more stable and intact buildings they found. The well built skyscrapers were still intact though a little beaten up. Though all that passed away as they then moved towards the outskirts of the city on the opposite side of the centre.

The group soon reached a huge metal gate. It was at least ten metres thick and at least fifteen metres high. The gate was connected to a huge circular wall. The gate had the Weyland-Yutani Corporation logo painted in the middle of it.

Cheetah walked up to the gate and pressed a button on the side. He then spoke into a speaker next to the button.

"HQ, this is Cheetah, open up." He said.

"_Rodger Cheetah, opening her up now. How did you go?"_

"We have another survivor, he's a little clueless on what's going on but he's in good health. That's the good news."

"_The bad?" _the radio asked back.

Cheetah paused.

"…we lost Wolf…"

The radio was silent.

The gate suddenly began to open. It swing slowly open, its immense size was breath taking. The thickness coupled with the height made it seem impenetrable. The group walked through the gap in the gate and it began to close behind them.

Ryan finally saw what was behind those gigantic gates. It was a Weyland-Yutani research base. It was about one and half square kilometres in size and was surrounded by ten metres by fifteen metres wall.

Cheetah lead them into a huge conference room. It had lost all it's glamour since the survivors had taken hold of it. Things were all over the floor, papers, chairs. There were computers on the main table connected to a gigantic CPU system. Basically it was a super computer.

A man sat in a chair in front of the main computer. He turned around in the swivel to look at the arrivals. He wore square glasses and had ruffled hair.

"Ryan, I'd like you to meet HQ." Cheetah told Ryan. "He is our computer wiz, he can do anything. He has made a 3D map of the whole city since the destruction of it by only what we have said over the radio, he has a radar system that picks up the skin type of the aliens so he can pinpoint an ambush on our base within a five kilometre radius. Now he is working on a radio headset system so the pack can remain in constant communication with HQ."

HQ stood up and shook Ryan's hand. He had a fairly weak grip but it was strong for his appearance. He smiled at Ryan, this made Ryan feel better. A smile always makes someone feel better, and in this situation, it was a big thing to have someone smile; this was Ryan's perspective, he was sure that from the other's perspective that people smiled a lot, but they were used to the horror that Ryan had seen today.

Ryan then asked his question again.

"What happened here?"

Cheetah looked at him.

"Alright, time for the grand unveiling."

He pulled up a chair and sat in it. Ryan did the same, but the other's preferred to stand.

"Say about a month ago, we believe Weyland-Yutani got their hands on the most deadly species in the universe known to man. It was a fast creature with acid blood, sharp teeth, amazing chemical properties and can adapt to any climate they find themselves in. They were strong, quick and lethal; the perfect killing machines.

"The aliens also had a strange life cycle. The Corporation said there was a lead female or 'Queen' who lays eggs. Inside the eggs were a small creature that looks kind of like a hand only with too many fingers and a tail. This creature jumps onto its victim's face and clamps its fingers around the victim's head and ties its tail around the neck. The victim can now only breathe through their mouth or they suffocate. Instinct makes them breathe through the mouth and the creature shoves a tube from it's underbelly down the victim's throat."

Ryan looked horrified. The thought of a tube being shoved down hi throat while he was conscious was not pleasant.

"Horrible isn't it." Cheetah continued. "But that's not the worst part. The creature will eventually come off your face and die. But it has already put a baby alien that you have already seen in your chest. For a few hours the baby will grow and when it is big enough it will eat its way out of your chest."

Ryan had to swallow back vomit at that thought. Horrible images of someone's chest being torn open from the inside flashed through his mind. He shut his eyes and willed them away.

Cheetah continued in the hope of to stop Ryan thinking about it.

"The baby then grows into the creatures you've already seen. The 'drone' aliens are the ones you've seen and they help take people back to the hive. If victims are close to the hive when they meet aliens then the aliens will attempt to take them to the hive alive. That's when they can subdue you and put one of the spider aliens on you or 'facehuggers' as we call them."

Ryan interjected.

"Ok. But what happened here? Why are the aliens running free through the decaying streets of New York? Why are the streets decaying? What the hell happened?"

Cheetah looked at him hard. He pondered Ryan's tone, he seemed very stressed. The shock of finding his home like this would do that to a man.

"Well, three weeks ago, an alien organism escaped into New York. We don't where from or how, but we suspect that Weyland-Yutani must have underestimated the creature and it took its chance. So now that alien built a hive all by itself, there was no massive damage but there were reports of people going missing. Those people were being taken to the first hive and having aliens breed in them. On Thursday that week, police found the hive. Out of a group of fifty police, three made it out alive. They told people what they saw and the Colonial Marines were brought in, they destroyed the hive but some of the aliens had spread elsewhere, building more hives. By Friday it had reached epidemic proportions.

"Police were frantic, the Colonial Marines destroyed hive after hive but more kept appearing. Nothing could stop them from spreading; they attacked shopping malls, apartment buildings, power facilities, everywhere. On Saturday they pulled the Colonial Marines out. The citizens panicked, they massed in the streets trying to leave the city, but the police knew that if they were all outside then they would be easy pickings for the aliens. They tried to urge people to go back to their homes but they wouldn't hear of it.

"The government knew that it was time for drastic action. They wouldn't dare nuke the city, they wanted minimal civilian casualties. They decided to use an experimental weapon that they had been making. It was a bomb that didn't explode but it changes the atmosphere in a certain radius. They knew that that bomb would kill all the aliens and leave the city intact. It would kill people though so they instructed everyone to go into a bomb shelter or concrete basement. Some people got underground, yourself included obviously.

"When the bomb hit, the atmosphere changed dramatically. The air became denser and full of nitrogen. Unfortunately the aliens have the ability to adapt to any climate change, so they were unharmed. Also any above ground building not with a very advanced structural integrity disintegrated and crumbled. Everyone underground was unharmed, but most of the population was outside when the bomb hit.

"The atmosphere changes were only temporary and lasted about a week. The Colonial Marines conducted an extraction operation to any survivors, but the alien population had not been dented. They pulled out about fifty percent of the survivors and suffer heavy casualties. So they pulled out and left the remaining fifty percent to our chances in the city.

"We formed little clans and learnt to use the alien's abilities against them. As far as I know, now after a week of surviving in the streets, we are the only clan still surviving. Well that's about it."

Ryan stared off into space. Everyone he knew or loved; everyone he had seen; nearly every man, women and child; they had all been wiped from existence or left to die in this wasteland.

_I hope the person responsible was among them! _He thought baring his teeth. _Wait that's it!_

"Weyland-Yutani is responsible…" he said.

"How do you know?" Fox asked.

"I don't, but somehow I know they're right in the middle of it."

Suddenly an alarm sounded, red lights flashed. Everyone looked up at the lights, HQ ran to a computer.

"That's a proximity alert! They're closing in!"

Cheetah stood up and opened a desk draw. He pulled out a Desert Eagle .50 pistol and handed it to Ryan.

"Here you go." He said.

"What's this for?" Ryan asked.

"You'll need it." Snake said.

Everyone walked to the door, grabbing there weapons on the way.

"Where are we going?" Ryan asked.

Cheetah looked at him.

"You're going to get your equipment."


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 

Things moved quickly. Hawk and Eagle loaded up their pulse rifles with a fresh magazine and slotted more grenades into the pump action grenade launcher. Fox and Snake grabbed their weapons and pulled on their armour. Puma sat this one out because of her shoulder injury. HQ took her to the infirmary to patch it up. Cheetah pulled out some magazines for Ryan's Desert Eagle pistol and put them in Ryan's pocket. He then put his hands on Ryan's shoulders.

"Now it's time for you to take part in the fight. I think you can do it." He said.

Ryan looked at him. Cheetah could see the fear in his eyes and he hoped he would overcome it. Ryan was hoping the same thing. _Well, I'd better start getting used to this new life and nows as good a time as any, _he thought. He loaded a clip into his gun and pulled the slide back to lock in a bullet. Cheetah smiled and collected his own weapons and the group left the room.

The group now stood in front of the gate into the complex facing the street. Hawk and Eagle had tailed off to the top of the wall to get a good shot. Ryan stood terrified behind the group holding his gun limply in his hands.

Cheetah pressed a finger on his ear piece and spoke into his mouth piece.

"HQ, what's the enemy's position?"

"_Two hundred metres and closing._" HQ replied.

"Check; Hawk, Eagle, what's your status?"

"_I got nothing yet Cheet_." Hawk replied.

"_Me neither._" Eagle added.

"Ok," Cheetah looked at the others. "You guys all get that?"

They all nodded. They also had ear and mouth pieces, Ryan had one too.

"Ok people, look sharp." Cheetah said.

HQ sat in front of the super computer at the 3D map of the city. The pack outside were shown in front of the gate and the mass of aliens were shown coming towards the gate quickly, about one hundred metres away. HQ grabbed his headset in fear.

"Here they come!"

The aliens came pelting from everywhere in front of them. The pack leapt forward to repel them, Ryan stayed back not eager to fight. Hawk and Eagle opened fire on the hoard; they guessed that the alien pack was at least twenty five strong. The noise of there pulse rifles was gigantic as the shots rained down on the aliens; five aliens just dropped to the ground and stayed down.

Ryan heard chatter over the radio.

"_Let's rock!_"

"_Fox! Behind you!_"

"_Damn it! There everywhere!_"

Ryan saw the pack in action and it was spectacular. They were jumping around and wielding their weapons at lightning speed. Cheetah picked up an alien by shoving one end of his staff through an alien and then he flung it into a group of aliens, knocking them all over. He then shoved the other end of the staff into one of the downed alien's head and pole vaulted off and whacked an alien that was standing up square in the face, slicing it off. He then twirled his staff around and pulled out his spear. Then he was attacked by three aliens and he began to parry the strikes of all three of them at once.

Ryan looked over at Snake. He was creeping behind an alien. He grabbed it and sliced its throat and dropped it to the ground. Another alien looked around but Snake was all ready behind it and he removed its head in one stroke. And then he was gone in a flash elsewhere. Ryan was amazed.

Suddenly an alien spotted Ryan. It hissed and began to run for him. Ryan gasped and aimed his gun at it, his hands shaking. He turned his head away a bit and squinted ready for the gun to go off. He pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the alien in the leg; because of the Desert Eagle's power it took the leg clean off.

The alien fell to the ground and writhed around. Ryan fired again only he didn't look away this time. He hit the alien square in the chest, this knocked the alien over but it was still alive. Ryan fired until the empty clip dropped from the gun. The alien lay in a pile of its acid blood; it was the head shot that had killed it. Ryan realised that to kill one of these things with a pistol it took a shot to the head.

HQ listened to the radio communication since on the radar the pack and the aliens were mixed.

"_Ryan, this is Hawk, good shooting!_"

"_Thanks._"

"_Damn! Here come more of them!_"

HQ looked at the radar. Surly enough, another twenty or so aliens were arriving on the scene.

"_HQ, this is Eagle, are there any more coming?_"

"No there's no more on the radar."

"_Good- Hey guys…where's Cheetah?_"

Hawk and Eagle were firing their pulse rifles to no end on the battle below them. Aliens dropped like flies but they could only shoot so many at once. Eagle went dry and grabbed another clip, Hawk was running low on his clip too but he covered Eagle's ground as best he could. Eagle slammed her clip home, loaded it up and opened fire.

"Hey guys…where's Cheetah?" Eagle said into her mike.

"_I dunno, I lost sight of him a few minutes ago._" Snake replied.

"Damn!" Eagle said.

Ryan was hiding behind cover. He would occasionally step out and shoot an alien or two. He stepped out now and aimed square at an aliens head. He pulled the trigger and the aliens head exploded in a shower of yellow acid. Ryan shot another alien in the head and ducked back to suddenly find an alien staring him in the face at point blank range.

The alien opened its mouth and the second mouth was poised, ready to strike. Ryan thought fast, he shoved the barrel of his Desert Eagle pistol into its mouth and pressed against it hard.

"Suck on this." He said and pulled the trigger.

The alien was flung away from Ryan and landed on its back, dead. But acid from its head splashed onto Ryan's leg. He screamed, the pain was immense as it ate away at his skin. He stood up and he swayed from the lack of strength in his leg. He hobbled to the gate and rested inside a small indent in the wall.

Suddenly a voice came over the radio.

"_Everyone this is Cheetah._"

"_Cheetah where the hell are you?_"

"_I'm coming and I've got a plan. There's a whole more horde of them about fifty metres ahead of me. Now I'm going to lead them to the gate to the rest of them; when I say 'Now!' Hawk, Eagle, I want you to blow them off the face of the Earth._"

"_Rodger that Cheetah._" Hawk replied.

"_Now Ryan,_" Cheetah went on, "_I need you to watch my back as I lead them there. Where are you?_"

"I'm resting against the gate. One of those bastards bled on my leg." Ryan said.

"_Ok can you see the whole battle ground?_"

"Yep."

"_Ok, when I come running around the corner I want you to shoot any of them that get close to me, clear?_"

"Clear." Ryan winced.

Ryan looked around the corner. Cheetah came running around the street corner and soon after about fifty aliens came pelting around. An alien leapt at Cheetah, Ryan aimed and fired. He hit it in the chest and knocked it back. Cheetah had reached the centre of the battle and was still going strong. Snake and Fox pulled out and dived for safety. Cheetah was about five metres from Ryan when he grabbed his mike.

"_Now!_" he yelled.

"_Fire in the hole!_" Hawk bellowed and pumped the grenade launcher on the pulse rifle. Eagle did the same. Then they both fired.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 

The explosion was huge. Hawk and Eagle placed a dead hit in the centre of the alien crowd. It detonated on impact and sent alien corpses flying in all directions. Cheetah dived through the air and landed next to Ryan, he grabbed Ryan as he landed and flung him to the ground. The flames engulfed the aliens within the impact zone and obliterated them into nothing. The rest were hit by the blast radius and flew through the air, the pressure crushing their bodies.

The aliens on the outer edges of the crowd flew away intact but the force of the explosion killed them. Their bodies hit the ground and slid for a few metres.

Ryan looked up; he could feel the heat from the blast on his face. All he saw were alien bodies lying everywhere. Some were burned to a crisp, some were crushed piles of skin and others were lying intact around the street.

Cheetah put a finger to his ear piece.

"This is Cheetah, everyone ok?"

"_Yeah Cheetah we're good._" Snake replied.

"_Good plan._" HQ told him.

"Thanks. Well everyone inside for a rest. Except for you Ryan, I need you for something."

"_Rodger that Cheetah._" Fox replied.

"_Let's go._" Eagle said.

The pack left the street and returned to the base, leaving Cheetah and Ryan in the street. Cheetah gave him a hand up and supported him over his shoulder.

"That was some good shooting Ryan, good job."

Ryan winced from the pain in his leg.

"Thanks…" he said.

"Now how many of them do you think you killed?"

Ryan thought for a moment.

"About six or seven. Why?"

"Well now that is how many alien corpses you may use to make your weaponry for future battles. So we need to get six corpses and you can make your weapons and armour." Cheetah said.

"…ok." Ryan responded.

They each grabbed a body and dragged them back into the base and went back for a second trip.

Ryan sat inside a Weyland-Yutani enclosure with six alien corpses in front of him. Cheetah stood with Fox, Snake and Hawk; they all held their weapons.

"Now Ryan," Cheetah said "You have to choose what kind of weaponry you wish to use. I have the others here to show you some options, we have Snake here who has a sword made from the tail claw, it's powerful and if used fast enough is a brilliant defence; now Fox has used two alien fingers as knives, they may not be powerful but if combined with martial arts then they make for a good way to finish an enemy off; then there is Hawk here who has used an alien head to encase a gun, so if you wish to stay with shooting then that's the way to go only then you need to find a pulse rifle; and then there's me, I used two alien tail claws to make a good staff which is good for close combat as both end's are deadly, and I also made a one ended one for throwing and if I need a third weapon, that combined with speed and constant vigilance is a good fighting weapon.

"So what's it gonna be?"

Ryan looked at the aliens that lay before him and then at the weapons his team mates. He smiled as he made his decision and set to work.

HQ walked into the enclosure to where Ryan was working. Ryan looked up as he approached.

"Hey," HQ said "How's it coming?"

"Great." Ryan said.

"What weapons have you decided on?"

Ryan picked up his weapons to show to HQ.

"Well I have combined all the fighting styles of the others. I have a double bladed staff like Cheetah's for main combat, I agreed with him on it's technique and I've seen him use it and it can be unstoppable if used correctly. I also have a sword for secondary combat and stealth. Also on the note of stealth I have taken the fingers off all the alien bodies I have here to use as throwing knives, I thought Fox's use of the fingers was ingenious."

"Wow, that's a good mix." HQ said nodding. "It will take a while to master all that."

"Yeah I know but in this fortress I won't have much else to do but fight, will I? I think I can do it." Ryan said.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7 

It took him a month to be precise. Ryan trained long and hard on dead aliens, Fox had been showing him the best spots to hit them for a quick kill. Fox had taken a liking to him and Ryan vice versa. She trained him in the use of the fingers and Ryan learnt fast. He soon was able to hit the bodies dead in the face and into the throat. He made himself a belt to hold all the fingers in individual pouches. He could easily flick one out and fling it into an alien in seconds.

Cheetah taught him how to use the staff. He taught him how to use the staff as a means to send an alien flying, and how to use it to wrestle with one. And he also taught him to fight several aliens at once.

Puma, now with a healthy shoulder taught him to fight with his sword. The thing with sword paly was speed and not strength, though strength must be maintained as these are strong creatures. She taught him to throw the sword, and to parry alien claw strikes.

At the end of that month, Ryan was given his alien armour plates and his animal title.

"You have trained hard," Cheetah said at the presentation "you now may bear the weapons and armour of the survivors. You now replace our late member and have inherited his title, Wolf."

The pack clapped as Ryan took his armour and shook Cheetah's hand. Ryan turned around and looked at the others. Eagle was clapping with a smile on her face, Hawk was cheering loudly, HQ clapped his hands together and punched the air, Puma gave him the thumbs up and Snake clapped politely. Fox walked up to him and gave him a hug, Ryan embraced her back. When they parted Cheetah put his hands on Ryan's shoulders.

"Well are you ready for your first fight as a pack member?"

"Let's do it." Ryan replied.

The gates if the base opened. Inside there were a pack of seven people in alien armour, with their leader in front. They began to walk out as the gate opened wide enough.

Cheetah was in the lead followed by Snake, then Ryan, Fox and Puma. Hawk and Eagle brought up the rear. They entered the suburbs of New York. It was mid afternoon, the orange scorched sky emblazoned the surroundings with a bright orange tinge. Houses were crumbled, cars were crashed; papers were strewn everywhere. They reached a playground which was crumbling; it looked as though the colour had been drained from it and that if you so much as touch it, it would fall to the ground. But what was really sad was the human bodies lying in the street. Men, women and children lay in the streets.

Ryan suddenly asked a question.

"So what are we looking for?"

Cheetah stopped the group and turned around to face everyone.

"Ok I'll tell everyone." He said. "The other day I was on perimeter duty, I saw smoke rising from downtown, I assumed it was a burning building but that was when I heard the gun fire and saw the explosions. I think the marines are conducting a rescue op again. This could be our ticket home and I want to take it. So we are going to investigate downtown to see what's going on."

Snake butted in.

"If the marines are coming in wouldn't we be able to see dropships arriving and APCs charging around?" he said.

"That as it may be, there is something going on over there and we are going to find out." Cheetah replied.

With that the group set off to downtown to investigate the sudden fire fight.

Downtown was a mess. It was like the suburbs only on a much grander scale. The amount of wrecked vehicles was amazing; they were all over the road and the pavement. Lampposts had fallen and the sky scrapers had crumbled. Though some sky scrapers had only lost their paint and remained intact. But what really scared Ryan was that there were no bodies in these streets.

Suddenly Cheetah held up his hand to stop the pack. Everyone stopped dead in their tracks and listened. Gun fire, very close. Cheetah signalled to Hawk and Eagle, they split up and ran into the ruins to find sniping points. Cheetah signalled for the rest to stay low and follow him.

Cheetah pressed his finger to his ear piece.

"HQ where are they?"

"_The next street, there seems to be a fair few of them so be advised._"

"Any signs of marine backup?" Cheetah asked.

"_I got nothing, sorry mate._"

"Thanks."

Cheetah lead the group to the next street and saw the battle before them.

There were three men standing in the middle of the street, in amongst the rubble and wrecked cars. One of them held a pulse rifle, another had a pump-action shotgun and the third held a marines flamethrower. In front of them was a hoard of over one hundred aliens charging at them. The pulse rifle man mowed the front line down and went dry, he ejected the clip, pulled out another one quick as a flash and slammed in and opened fire. The shotgun seemed to be more of a close range weapon, he waited until the aliens leapt at them before firing; the shots were so powerful that it sent the aliens flying back the way they came. The flamethrower set sections of the hoard on fire and the aliens made a distinguishable screaming noise and went ballistic. They ran in random directions before the fire burnt them to a crisp.

They seemed to be holding the aliens back quite well but Ryan knew that if one of them ran out of ammo then they were doomed.

"I say we get in there!" he said.

"Right on!" Puma agreed.

"Alright." Cheetah said, he press his ear piece.

"Hawk, Eagle open fire!"

"_Let's do it! Let's waste 'em!_"

More pulse rifle fire rained down on the hoard. The three men in the middle looked up in surprise at the new shots. The rest of the pack leapt into action.

Ryan somersaulted over the shotgun man and swung his staff clean through its head, knocking its body aside. The shotgun man eyes widened in surprise, only to come back to reality in time to shoot an oncoming alien. Ryan flipped into a group of aliens, swinging his staff at lightning speed. His staff struck alien after alien as he spun and twirled through the group.

He grabbed one of the aliens onto his staff and flung it through the air; he leapt after it out of the group. He flung three fingers direct into the aliens head, killing it in mid air. He then planted his feet onto another alien and pushed it to the ground and crushed its head under his feet.

He looked behind him and saw a group of twenty aliens coming his way. He spun around and drew his sword in his left hand to meet his attackers.

Fox kicked an alien into an oncoming group, knocking them all back. She spun to kick another one across the face, its face crunched from the force of the hit. She turned to see an alien coming up behind her; she swung her fist into its face. As it reeled from the punch she flung her knife up into its head and knocked it flying.

An alien hoard of forty or so strong ran at her. She made the quick decision to bail out and she back flipped onto a pile of rubble and waited for them to arrive. Now the aliens could only come up at her in duos or trios and were much easier for her to repel. She kicked two of them off the rubble into the line of fire from Hawk. She then kneed one in the face and then grabbed it by the hands and hammer threw it into the group coming up the rubble. This knocked half of them into Hawks line of fire, in which they were annihilated.

Fox then flipped backwards off the rubble to land back to back with Puma.

Snake watched from the shadows, about a third of the aliens had been destroyed and the battle was going well. He was waiting for a group to come his way so he would have the element of surprise. He was ready to attack a group that was fair out of his way if another didn't come soon for if he was out of the battle too long they would be in trouble.

Suddenly a group came running past, Snake leapt out at them. His sword sliced one in half, another split into three, before he then began to parry their strikes. An alien leapt onto his back and he rolled through the group. He jumped and landed on his back, crushing the alien under his weight. He jumped up in time to fling an attacking alien aside and to slice another's head off.

He then slid down to trip another one over and sliced its face off, the acid blood spilt all over his chest. But thanks to his armour he was unaffected. He then swung his legs in a full three sixty degrees to knock another two aliens over. He then broke one's neck with his foot and slammed his sword through the other's head.

Hawk was firing none stop into the bunches of aliens left on the battlefield. They alien forces had now been reduced to half, but the battle wasn't won yet. He fired over and over at alien upon alien; he used clips every two minutes.

He was running low on ammunition, he decided on a quicker method. He pressed his finger on his ear mike.

"Fire in the hole!" he yelled.

He saw people dive away from the battle; he pumped the grenade launcher on his pulse rifle and fired. He hit the group dead centre and blasted every alien within a ten metre radius. Their bodies flew into other aliens which resulted in them being knocked over. Down on the ground, the pack sprung back into action; slicing aliens that were down and parrying the quick ones that had already gotten up.

"Let's rock!" Eagle yelled.

The two of them opened fire on the downed aliens.

Cheetah flipped onto an alien and slammed his staff through its head, then swung its body aside in time upper cut an alien in the face with the stick part of the staff. He then rammed one end into its jaw and out the other side of its head. He then looked around the battlefield.

The others were mopping up the last few aliens; they were hiding in amongst the dead ones that covered the area. He smiled, it was a good victory and they saved some people. The three survivors were standing in the centre of the battlefield.

Cheetah walked over to them, as he walked he pressed his ear mike.

"Everyone regroup, and good job." He said.

"_Rodger that Cheet, thanks._" Hawk replied.

"_Aye, Aye."_ Fox said.

Cheetah looked up at the survivors.

"Hello," he said "my name is Cheetah. Pleasure to meet you."

They stared back at him. The pulse rifle man stepped forward.

"Thank you. My name is Harrison and this is Hank and George."

He indicated to the other two.

"Good to meet you, we thought we were the only remaining survivors of the outbreak." Cheetah told them.

"So did we," Harrison said "we thought our little group were the only ones left. There were more of us then, around ten I'd say, but most of them were killed or taken to the hive."

"So the hive still exists?" Cheetah asked.

"Yes, I've seen it."

"Where?"

"I don't know, I was rescued from there and it happened so quickly."

"Right."

"Listen, thanks for your help, you guys were amazing!"

"Don't mention it-"

"Cheetah!"

Cheetah turned to see Puma walking towards him. Hawk and Eagle weren't too far behind.

"What is it?" Cheetah asked.

"We think that's the last of them. There weren't many left after the grenade attack."

Suddenly an alien leapt up right next to Puma. It hissed and opened its mouth, ready to strike.

"Puma!" Hawk yelled.

Puma turned her head and saw the alien. Ryan saw it all happen as though in slow motion. Hawk raised his pulse rifle to aim at the alien's head. He opened fire, the alien's head exploded in a shower of acid blood. Acid blood which showered all over Puma's face.

She screamed as the acid burnt her skin off her face, bone became exposed, flesh turned black.

"Puma!" Eagle screamed.

Her and Hawk ran over to Puma's fallen body. Eagle grabbed her hugged her, crying.

"No," she said "no no no!"

Eagle and Puma had been very close; they had known each other before the outbreak. Tears dripped down her face, she sobbed uncontrollably. Fox laid a hand on her shoulder, Eagle looked up. Fox hugged her, Eagle cried into her shoulder. Fox patted her back and let go, she looked Eagle in the eyes.

"I'm so sorry Eagle, but we have to go." She said.

Eagle looked tearfully back at Puma's body, then back at Fox and nodded. Hawk was just staring at Puma's body. Ryan was watching him. _I can't imagine the feeling he has; it was his shooting that killed her. He must feel terrible _he thought.

Cheetah looked sadly at everyone; he felt the pain as well. The only person who didn't seem very different was Snake. He was off to the side looking off into space in deep thought. Then Cheetah finally got his senses back.

"Ok everyone, we should go before more of them come."

Back at base, they were met by HQ. He was glad to see new arrivals, but was then saddened by the loss of Puma. He was probably the worst affected by it, second to Eagle. They all had a silent moment to honour her service to the fight for survival in this apocalyptic wasteland.

At dinner, discussions about the new arrivals was the main topic.

"So what did you do before the incident Harrison?" Fox asked.

"I didn't do much actually; I worked in an electrical appliance store."

"You handle a weapon really well." Cheetah pointed out.

"Yeah I wanted to be in the military, so I under went he training but failed the physical." He said.

"How about you guys?" Ryan asked Hank and George.

"I was a cop." George replied.

"And I was in the military, but I was honourably discharged." Hank told him.

"Why?"

"I made decisions that got many men killed."

The meal went relatively smoothly after that. When everyone had finished Cheetah stood up.

"Ok everyone should get some sleep, I'm gonna fill in for Eagle on the dinner to midnight perimeter duty, she has had enough to deal with today. Wolf," he said.

"Yeah?" Ryan asked.

"I'd like you to do the midnight 'till morning perimeter duty. That ok?"

"Sure, yeah."

"Good." Cheetah said "Now everyone else, get some sleep, tomorrow could be a big day for all we know so we need to be refreshed for it. Harrison, I'll show you guys were you'll sleep."

Everyone got up from the table and went there ways for the night.

Later that night, in the main science lab of the base, a man was using the terminal into the classified experiments chamber. He punched in a code which opened a small inbuilt chamber. Inside was a facehugger inside an acid proof glass box. The man picked it up and left the room, walked through the base to the sleep quarters.

He found the ventilation shafts for the sleeping quarters, opened one and placed the box in the vent. He closed the vent and removed a remote; this remote opened the box if it carries a dangerous thing for employee safety. The man pressed the button and released the facehugger. It leapt out of the box and scuttled down the vent and into the closest room.


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8 

Ryan sat on top of the gate watching the sun rise over the horizon. It had just reached dawn and the dark sky was gaining its orange colour. He wasn't wearing his armour as he figured he didn't need it at the moment, it lay over with his weapons to his left. He sat there thinking about the events of the previous day. Puma's death was the worst of them. He had been thinking about it for most of the night, he really felt sorry for her, and especially Eagle. He couldn't imagine how hard this must be for her.

_I guess we all just have to move on,_ he thought _but we can't let something like this destroy our hope for survival even if it seems-_

"Hey."

Ryan turned to the voices origin. It was Fox.

"Hey." Ryan said.

Fox wasn't wearing her armour either, she wore loose fitting, plain pyjamas.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked.

"Nah sure." Ryan said quickly.

She sat down close to him on his right. So close that their shoulders touched.

"How has your night been?" she asked.

"Alright, it's been pretty quiet."

Ryan thought for a moment.

"There's something I want to ask you." He said.

"What?"

"What's your name?"

Fox looked him dead in the eyes.

"Laura." She said.

"Laura. I like it."

"Thanks."

Ryan stared down at the ground.

"What's wrong?" Fox asked.

"Sorry, it's just…after seeing Puma get killed yesterday, I'm amazed I've held on this long. I don't get why I'm still here. Why do I stay?"

Fox looked down at the ground too.

"Maybe it's the people your with." She said.

"What do you mean?" Ryan asked.

"Well is there anyone you like?" she said looking at his face.

That made Ryan uncomfortable. He twitched a bit in nerves.

"I like the people I've met here." Ryan said. "I mean I like Cheetah, he's a great guy and he saved my life. Hawk and Eagle are a great pair, they seem inseparable and they're nice to me. HQ is nice guy, we get on well and I like his way of always looking on the bright side. Snake is possibly the guy I least like. He doesn't seem to like me either; he doesn't seem to like anyone."

"And how do you feel about me?" Fox asked.

Ryan looked into the horizon.

"You are a wonderful woman, you smart, beautiful and fight amazingly. I'd have to say you're my favourite out of-"

That's when she kissed him. She leant over and lightly pressed her lips against his. Ryan was a little surprised but he kissed back. _She likes me; _he thought _she actually likes me!_

When she withdrew herself, she looked embarrassed.

"I'm sorry," she said "I shouldn't have done that. I-"

This time it was Ryan who kissed her. She was also surprised for a second but then passionately kissed back. They kissed more intensely.

It was a strange sight, that in the middle of this dead city, there were two lovers kissing as the sun dawned in front of them.

At breakfast two hours later Ryan, Fox, Snake, Hawk, Eagle and HQ sat around the table eating and chatting. Ryan and Fox sat next to each other, holding hands under the table.

"So how was duty last night Wolf?" Hawk asked.

"Pretty quiet really." Ryan replied "I think they've given up on breaking in for the moment."

"That's good news." HQ said.

"Too right." Hawk agreed.

Fox looked at Eagle, who was sitting next to her.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

Eagle looked at her.

"Yeah, I guess I can't let Puma haunt me if I want to stay alive so I guess the time for grieving isn't for a while."

Fox put a hand on her shoulder.

"Good decision." She said.

HQ looked around the table.

"Hey where are our guests?" he asked.

Ryan looked around.

"Still in their rooms I guess." he said.

"Someone should go get them so they don't miss breakfast." Hawk said.

"I'll go." Ryan said, getting up.

"No, I'll go." Fox said. She kissed Ryan on the cheek and left the room.

After she's left, Hawk looked down the table at Ryan.

"So…you and Fox eh?" he said, grinning.

Ryan smiled at Hawk's teasing. He was glad he could still smile after the things he's seen recently. But then in perfect timing, Fox's voice came over the PA system.

"_Everyone get down to the lab quick._"

Everyone from the breakfast room stood in the lab in front of the specimen containment slots. Fox had pointed out that one was open.

"Someone took something out of here." she said.

"But why?" HQ asked.

"I dunno." she said.

Hawk looked up from his deep thinking.

"What were in these?" he asked.

HQ walked over to the computers and started typing. After a few minutes he had a list on the screen.

"It says here that they had Weyland-Yutani's alien specimens. But you can't fit a drone in there."

"Facehugger." Snake said.

The others looked at him.

"But where is it?" Eagle asked.

"Someone must have released it during the night to catch us unawares." HQ said "But no one has been impregnated."

There was silence as people wondered where the escaped facehugger could be. Ryan looked up suddenly.

"Oh my god!" he said "Cheetah!"

He ran out of the room and down the corridor. The rest of the group charged after him. Ryan turned a corner and stopped in front of Cheetah's door. He tried to turn the handle but it wouldn't budge. He pounded his fist on the door.

"Cheetah! Can you hear me!" he shouted.

No answer. Ryan shoulder barged the door, he felt it giving way. He barged it again and again. The door finally fell open and Ryan ran inside. That's where he saw Cheetah lying on the floor with a facehugger clinging to his face.

"Damn it!" Ryan said. He ran over to Cheetah and knelt down next to him. Everyone else came in and saw the horror inside.

"No." HQ gasped.

"Help me." Ryan said, picking up Cheetah by the shoulders. Hawk grabbed his feet. They carried him out of the room and into medical. They placed him on the examination table, and then Ryan looked at the others.

"What can we do?" he asked everyone.

"Nothing," HQ said "once it's on his face we can't remove it, nor do any of us have the skill in surgery. It will come off itself but then we can't get the embryo out either."

"Damn!" Ryan said.

Ryan tried to pull his hair out, the frustration was massive. He paced around the room. _What to do? What to do? _he thought. He stared at Cheetah on the table. The facehugger was pulsing in unison with his breathing; its tail was tight around his neck. Suddenly something came to Ryan.

"Harrison…" he whispered.

"What?" Eagle asked.

Ryan didn't answer.

"HQ, look up the employee records of this place, search for Harrison."HQ sat at a computer terminal and started searching. Everyone else stared at Cheetah lying on the examination table, Fox was close to tears. Ryan put an arm around her shoulder to comfort her; she turned and buried her face in his chest. Ryan patted her on the back lightly.

"Got it!" HQ called.

Ryan ran over to the computer and looked at the screen, and his suspicion was confirmed. On the screen was a picture of Harrison's face along with a description. He was a level 6 classified employee and had access to the highest specimens.

"I knew it…Bring them here, now!" Ryan said.

Hawk and Snake left the room. After ten minutes or so they returned with Harrison, Hank and George; the three of them were bound at the hands.

"We found them about to escape through the back entrance." said Snake "Seems like they didn't wish to be discovered by us."

"With how I'm going to treat them I'm not surprised." said Ryan through gritted teeth.

They lined the three of them up in front of the group. Ryan stepped in front to confront them.

"So, you lot aren't the ordinary citizens you claim." he said "You are Weyland-Yutani scientists. That's how you released this thing into the complex."

The three of them remained silent. They simply stared at Ryan, taking in his every word.

"But I think you did more, you were the ones who let these things loose into the city weren't you?"

Harrison looked at him.

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

"Well I doubt that you would have tired to run if you had the chance to make us believe the facehugger must have snuck in."

Harrison looked at Hank and George, then back at Ryan.

"It was a test to see how well the aliens could take over a populated area. We wish to use these creatures as a bio weapon in war. And from the current results it seems that they prove quite dangerous to the opposition." he said.

"These people weren't an opposition!" Hawk shouted "They were innocent civilians!"

"They were killed for an important cause; we've got the proof we need that these things are effective." Harrison replied.

HQ looked up.

"What were you going to say? 'We released these things into New York and we believe you should honour us for mass murder and use our evidence to make an unstoppable force of these creatures'?" he said in disbelief.

"No, we were going to act as though this was amazing to us and then suggest the use of them in war."

Hawk stepped forward but Eagle grabbed his arm.

"You son of a-" he began.

"Hawk! Don't!" Eagle said.

Hawk relaxed and backed down, glaring at Harrison. Ryan then asked a question.

"Now what can we do to help him?" he said gesturing at Cheetah.

"Nothing, he will die no matter what you do." Harrison said.

Fox finally interjected.

"We could remove it." she said.

"No one here is a surgeon." Harrison said.

"Then what?" Ryan asked "You worked here; you must have developed something that would kill it or prevent the alien's birth."

Harrison didn't answer. Ryan took this as a sign that he was fighting himself on whether to tell them about something. He stepped forward with his sword level with Harrison's neck.

"Tell me or you die!" he said, glaring at him.

Harrison looked at him.

"Well we have a serum that slows down the growth process of the alien inside the victim. This would prolong the time before it burrows its way out and may give someone enough time to get them to help."

"Where is it?" Ryan continued still with the sword at Harrison's neck.

"In the containers over there."

HQ opened the containers and pulled out a hyper dermic needle filled with a florescent, glowing, purple liquid. He walked over to Cheetah and was about to inject him when Ryan stopped him.

"We shouldn't do that until the facehugger is off him, because if we inject it now it will prolong the time before it comes off and we need him awake so we can get him to help." he said.

HQ backs off and collects all the needles.

"What are we going to do with them?" he asked, gesturing at the three Weyland-Yutani employees.

"Let's see if they last longer than the citizens did." Ryan said.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9 

The pack, minus Cheetah and Fox who was staying with him, stood on the wall surrounding the complex. They were watching Harrison, Hank and George walk away from the base unarmed.

"I think this is a fitting death." Hawk said. He and Eagle had their pulse rifles trained on them.

"Just don't shoot them unless they try to come back in." Ryan said.

Harrison, Hank and George then rounded the corner of the street and disappeared from sight. Hawk and Eagle lowered their pulse rifles. Hawk looked triumphant.

"Like to see how long they last against their own apocalypse." Hawk said with an evil smile on his face.

Suddenly a voice came over their earpieces. It was Fox.

"_Guys, that thing is off his face._" she said.

"Thanks Laura." Ryan replied.

The pack began to move off the perimeter wall and back into the base. When they reached the bottom of the stairs leading away from the wall they heard a beeping noise.

"That's the computer," HQ said "it must be picking up something. You guys on ahead, I'll check it out."

He ran off into the computer room and the rest of the pack walked to medical. They found Cheetah sitting up on the examination table with Fox putting a blanket around his shoulders and offering him a cup of water.

"Hey Cheetah," Ryan said "how are you feeling?"

Cheetah coughed before answering.

"Alright I guess, but the feeling knowing I have one of them inside me isn't very pleasant." he wheezed.

"At least you haven't lost your wit mate." Hawk joked.

"Damn right." Cheetah spluttered.

Fox picked up a hyper dermic needle.

"Cheetah, this will slow the alien growth so we can get you some help." she said.

Cheetah held out his arm and Fox injected him with the serum. Cheetah didn't even wince, nor did he react at all.

Suddenly, HQ's voice sounded through the PA system.

"_Guys, that signal before was an incoming radio message. It's the marines!_"

Everyone ran into the computer room, Ryan supporting Cheetah, and stood behind HQ.

"What's the message?" Hawk asked.

"Listen." HQ replied.

Static came through the speakers but in amongst it was a male, military voice.

"_People of New York, this is marine vessel 'Valkqurie'. We have received reports of explosions being detonated in the city. We are going to conduct a rescue operation to retrieve anyone who is left from the disaster. Evac point will be the top of the downtown Novotel building, it's high up so we won't be likely to be attacked. Evac at 1400 hours._"

And the message repeated itself. The pack stood in silence, finding it hard to believe what they just heard. Finally Eagle spoke.

"How long have we got?" she asked.

Ryan looked at his watch. It was 10:00am. Four hours until the marines arrive.

"Let's get going then! Everybody gear up and lets go." He said.

Everyone scattered and got their things. Hawk and Eagle loaded their pulse rifles and collected extra ammo. Fox and Snake put their armour on and picked up their weapons. Ryan put his armour on and collected both his and Cheetah's gear. He handed Cheetah's things to him.

"Here mate, you're going to need 'em." he said.

Cheetah looked up at him and smiled weakly. He took his armour and put it on. He slotted the staff into its holster on his back and slotted the spear in the opposite holster to the staff. After Ryan had got his things in order he helped Cheetah up and met the others in the conference room.

"Ok everyone," Ryan said "We have four hours to get to the evac point. It will take a fair bit of that just to reach downtown. And everyone be alert, I suspect that the aliens will be there waiting for us."

"I'll get Cheetah's serum." Fox said, she ran out of the room down to medical. She returned with a small box full of hyper dermic needles. She gave Cheetah an injection, and then put the box in a pack strapped to her back. She looked up at Ryan and smiled, he smiled back.

"Let's go." he said.

At 12:30pm the pack had reached down town, they had one and a half hours to reach the Novotel building. They rounded a corner into an intersection; Ryan put Cheetah down and surveyed the area. It was devastated; the whole area looked like a war had been fought there only minus all the corpses.

"Ok," he said to the others "Let's keep moving, hopefully we can get by without the aliens finding us-"

He was cut short, a group of twenty aliens came pelting from behind some rubble. They leapt through the air at incredible speed, the pack raised their weapons but the aliens bowled them over. Now the aliens had the upper hand, they clawed at their faces. Ryan got three cuts down the left side of his face. He leapt up and flipped his alien off him. While the alien was in mid air he flung three of his throwing fingers into its head.

He turned and sliced off the head of the alien on top of Eagle. She leapt up and shot Snake's alien in the legs and then the head to avoid the acid spilling on him. He jumped up and looked around.

One alien still remained, it was heading for Cheetah. Snake flung himself forward and sliced it in half and then impaled its head with his sword. The alien went limp and Snake kicked it aside.

Ryan turned to see if the others were ok, only to see that Snake, Cheetah, HQ, Eagle and himself were the only ones around.

"Laura!" he shouted "Hawk!"

He ran over to where he saw them last. They weren't there, but he saw something on the ground. Ryan bent down to pick it up. It was Fox's emerald chain.

_No! _he thought _She's alive! They don't kill straight away!_

"Hawk!" Eagle shouted.

"It's no use," Ryan said "they've been taken to the nest."

Everything went very still. The news began to settle in. Eagle was close to tears. Ryan stood up and looked defiantly at the others.

"I'm going after Laura." he said.

"What!" HQ said "That's insane!"

"She's alive! I know she is!"

"But you have no idea where the nest is." Snake said.

Ryan pointed towards the centre of downtown.

"The nest is obviously in downtown as there are no bodies here because they don't kill them near the nest. I'm guessing that it's in the main shopping centre that way." he said.

Snake didn't have anything to say about that. But Cheetah did.

"We'll never make the evac time." he wheezed.

Ryan looked him dead in the eyes.

"I'll be back before you know it." he said.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10 

Ryan walked down to the front entrance of the shopping centre, he was right. The entrance was covered in an alien substance, it looked like organic machinery. It was black and dripping with some translucent goo, it was immense in size and dwarfed Ryan where he stood. There was an immense heat billowing from within the terrifying darkness of the hive.

Ryan walked cautiously into the hive, his feet squelched on the soft floor. The heat hit him like a truck; he began to sweat extremely hard. But Ryan just walked on, further and further into the dark, hot haven of the aliens. He saw some features that this place used to be a shopping centre, there were tables fused into the walls by the organic material; also there were items like toys and kitchen appliances wedged into the walls. Ryan turned a corner and stopped, for what lay before him was a horrible sight.

He had reached the birth chamber. It looked a lot like the other areas but this one used different materials in the walls. People were wedged in the walls, men, women and children; their limbs were twisted in the wrong positions so they would fit. They all had a look of extreme pain on their faces, and they all had a hole in their chests. And lying around the room were empty facehugger eggs. Ryan looked horrified at what he saw; _I'd better find Laura, and fast! _he thought.

Ryan ran down the corridors of dead people, looking at their faces in case on of them was Fox. The masses of bodies seem to go on forever. Ryan looked at his watch; it was 1:05pm. He had fifty five minutes to get Fox and Hawk out of there and reach the evac point with the others. Suddenly he heard a voice.

"Wolf…" it said.

Ryan spun in its direction, it was Hawk. He was stuck in the wall with a look of sheer terror and urgency. Ryan ran over to him, Hawk was dripping with the translucent goo that dripped from the walls.

"Wolf…help me, it's moving…" Hawk winced.

"I'm going to get you out of here man, don't worry." Ryan said as he made to tear the alien goo holding him to the walls.

"No…you can't…kill me…" he pleaded.

Ryan looked at Hawk in sadness. He knew that all he could do for Hawk was to put him out of his misery. Hawk began to convulse.

"Kill me!...Kill me!" he wheezed.

He began to convulse more violently, a lump bulged under his armour. Ryan whipped out his sword and sliced Hawk across the throat. He was dead instantly, but that didn't stop the alien. It burst though his armour in a shower of blood that splattered onto Ryan's face. Ryan jumped back, the baby alien was hanging out of Hawk's chest; it was hissing loudly and trying to get to him. Ryan flicked an alien finger into its head and it dropped to the floor.

Fox woke with a start, her vision blurred. She moved her head to click her neck back into place, she tried to rub her face to get the feeling back but found she couldn't move her hand. Her eyes snapped into focus, she saw that her hands were glued to the walls by some sticky substance. She tried to tear her hands away but she couldn't. It was then that she saw the egg.

An unopened facehugger egg sat in front of her, she recognised it instantly. It was pulsing slowly, which meant that it was reacting to her presence. She tried harder to free herself, but it was no good. She heard a slippery, wet sound and looked back at the egg.

The egg opened to reveal a thin, organic ball that was pulsing slowly. Fox froze, the terror overwhelmed her. The organic skin on the ball began to break, some finger like legs protruded from within it. The facehugger crawled slowly onto the edge of the egg and over the top. Fox screamed as the facehugger came further and further out of the egg. It poised in a jumping position, ready to strike. What happened next seemed to happen in slow motion.

As the facehugger crouched a finger knife whistled through the air towards it. The second its legs left the egg, the finger hit it square through the brain and flung it across the chamber. It hit the wall opposite and was pinned by the finger. Fox looked to the source of the throw.

Ryan quickly walked out of the shadows to where Fox was held. He drew his sword, aimed carefully and then swung. He sliced her slimy bonds in three strokes. She fell into his arms, grabbed his face and kissed him. It was a passionate, intense kiss that seemed to last an eternity.

When she withdrew, she spoke.

"I knew you'd come." she said.

Ryan gazed into her eyes.

"I love you." he said.

"I love you too." she replied.

She kissed him again. But then they were interrupted by an alien scream down the corridor Ryan had appeared from. It was close, very close.

"Let's go." Ryan said.

With Fox in his arms, Ryan took off down the opposite corridor he had come through. Fox looked behind them but still couldn't see the aliens. Ryan turned a corner and stopped dead in his tracks. This was defiantly not where he wanted to be.

Ryan with Fox in his arms were standing in a field of facehugger eggs. There were hundreds of them, all scattered around the chamber. The chamber itself was the major department store of the shopping centre; it was huge, at least 200 metres in width. But in the centre of the room was the most horrifying thing in the whole nest.

It looked like a gigantic statue; it had a huge crest on its head that split like a trident at the end. It had six huge prongs coming out of its back, with four arms folded across its front. It also had a long, thick tube about two meters thick attached to its rear. Suddenly the thing raised its head, a set of jaws with huge teeth lowered from the front of the crest. It was the Queen Alien. She looked like a giant alien only with another set of arms and a huge crest.

The Queen let out a slow hiss\roar. Aliens began to close in on the entrances to the chamber. _Damn it! _Ryan thought; he looked around the room. There was no way that he could take them all out, but he guessed he had no choice.

Ryan put Fox down and drew his staff and his sword. The aliens readied themselves for the attack. They aliens leapt into the air, about five at once with others to follow. Ryan whacked three of them aside with his staff and sliced one in half with his sword. The fifth one he caught with his staff after flinging the other three aside. The two of them wrestled while the three discarded aliens got up and charged towards them. The rest of the alien force began to enter the egg chamber.

Ryan stabbed his alien through the head and kicked it off him. He leapt up to see the onrush of alien's stream towards him. He raised his weapons, though he knew this would be his end.

Then a shape landed in the middle of the alien hoard and swung a weapon and killed ten aliens in one stroke. Ryan looked amazed, the figure back flipped out of the alien hoard, striking a few down as he went, before landing next to Ryan and Fox. Light hit their face, it was Snake.

"Snake! What are you doing here?" Ryan said in disbelief.

"The others sent me to get you now go!" Snake shouted as he hacked three aliens down with his sword.

The Queen screamed in anger, she didn't want her prey to escape. She began to stand up, tearing at the tube's connection to her. It began to break.

"GO!" Snake shouted again.

"What about you?" Ryan yelled.

"Forget me just go!"

Ryan hesitated; Snake couldn't hold the aliens off forever. They would kill him. Ryan tried to help him but Snake pushed him away as he hacked two more aliens.

"Go! Or you won't make the evac on time!" he yelled.

Ryan did as he was told, he grabbed fox and ran out of the chamber. He followed the way he came in and soon enough he was out of the nest and into the daylight. He ran down the street to where the others were waiting with Fox in his arms.

Snake was spinning and twirling around at lightning speed back in the nest. He hacked aliens left and right, but there were just too many of them. The longer he fought the harder it got. Suddenly a shadow cast over him.

The Queen stood behind him, she towered above the battle. Snake reacted instantly. He jumped onto her knee and sliced through her thigh and flipped off and onto the ground. The Queen roared and swung her huge hand at him. She hit him square in the chest and flung him across the chamber. He got up slowly just as she reached him. He jumped away but she caught him in her hands. He sliced her hand with his sword and jumped straight up, but that was what the Queen was expecting. She fired out her giant inner mouth and punched it straight through Snake's entire torso. His bloodied corpse fell to the ground splattered all over the floor. The Queen roared in triumph and directed her aliens to help her chase the escaped humans.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11 

Ryan and Fox arrived at the intersection where the rest of the pack was waiting. Cheetah looked up at them.

"You're…back…" he wheezed.

"Yep," said Ryan as he put Fox down and looked at his watch which read 1:45pm, "and with enough time to get there."

"Where's Hawk?" Eagle asked.

Ryan didn't speak, but Eagle understood. She began to cry.

"What about Snake?" HQ asked.

"He held the aliens back while we escaped, I think they broke free."

Just then they could hear the alien hoard coming down the road. The screaming of at least two hundred aliens echoed through the streets. They were getting closer at an alarming rate.

"HQ, Eagle! Cover our backs!" Ryan yelled. "Let's go!"

He helped Cheetah up and slung him over his shoulder. The pack took off with Eagle and HQ running backwards shooting at the oncoming aliens. In the middle of the hoard was the Queen, she towered above the rest but she charged just as fast. Eagle gunned down six aliens in a horizontal sweep with her pulse rifle. HQ must have been trained with the Desert Eagle as he was shooting fast with every shot hitting square in the face.

The pack rounded corner after corner, the Novotel building suddenly was just up ahead. Ryan's spirits lifted, _almost there _he thought. Suddenly Cheetah convulsed on his shoulder. Ryan looked at him, he convulsed again.

"Wolf..." he wheezed "I can feel it…"

_Oh no! He hasn't had an injection!_

"We're almost there!" Ryan said.

"No…you go…I'll hold them…back…"

"There's too many of them!" Ryan said.

Cheetah slid off Ryan's shoulder. He landed on his feet and drew his staff and his spear.

"I'm dead anyway…no go!" he said.

"No…"

"…go!" he gasped.

Ryan had no choice, the aliens were to close to argue. He ran after the others at full speed.

Cheetah started slicing aliens left and right. It didn't do much good, the aliens just ran around him. Cheetah convulsed in the middle of striking but still kept on fighting. He fought and fought as the alien dug its way through hi chest. As he felt it break a few ribs, he became enraged and jumped into the centre of the oncoming aliens and attacked the Queen. He landed on one of her arms and sliced it off. The huge arm crushed many aliens and the Queen screamed in fury. She tried to bite Cheetah but he ducked it as the baby alien broke some more ribs. He cried out in pain, but didn't let it stop him. He jumped up onto the Queen's chest and flipped up onto her head. The Queen shook herself, trying to throw him off. But Cheetah lay on his stomach on top of her head and held on tight. Then he felt his last rib break.

He shut his eyes and screamed in desperation. The baby alien came shooting out his chest, stopping the screaming, and charged straight into the Queen's head and tore into her brain. The gigantic Queen fell to the ground though she slid a bit from the momentum of her running. She flattened aliens as she hit the ground and Cheetah's body was flung off her head and hit the ground hard, dead.

The remaining members of the pack ran into the Novotel building and barricaded the doors with chairs and anything they could find. Ryan checked his watch; it was 1:55pm. Five more minutes till evac.

"Let's keep moving." he said.

They ran through the main foyer and found the lifts. They piled into one and hit the top floor, the lift began to rise up the shaft towards the roof. It arrived and they ran out and up the stairs to the roof. They charged into the open air, the orange sky hovered above them.

"Where are they?" Ryan asked.

They looked around the sky.

"There!" Fox yelled.

Coming towards the building was an open sided, black helicopter. Ryan felt a relief flow through him. _We're saved!_ he thought. Fox hugged him, Eagle cheered. Ryan let go of Fox and looked back at the helicopter, his eyes widened. It was flying away.

"No!" he shouted "NO!"

"Why's it leaving?" Eagle yelled.

"I could have a guess." HQ said.

He was looking down the side of the building. The others came over and looked down. The aliens were flooding up the sides of the building towards them.

"No! Come back you bastards!" Ryan screamed "We're here! Come back you son of a bitch!"

Fox touched him lightly on the arm. Ryan stopped yelling and looked at her. Her eyes were pleading, she wanted him to stop.

"It's over Ryan." she said.

"I know." he replied.

She stepped forward and kissed him. It was one that gave Ryan a feeling that told him this was it. It was over. Suddenly they could hear the aliens scrambling up the building. They parted and Fox looked Ryan dead in the eyes.

"This is the end." she said.

"Yep." Ryan said.

He gave her one final, quick kiss. He then drew his sword and staff, Fox turned around. Ryan did the same, he turned to face his doom…


	13. Epilogue

Epilogue 

Private Oliver Hawkins sat in the marine helicopter as it flew above the remains of New York City. He held a pulse rifle in his hands and wore a combat helmet and armour. He looked out of the open side of the helicopter at the Novotel building. On it he saw four people standing still, each facing an edge of the building. He felt for them, but it was not his decision to leave them there.

Suddenly he saw the wave of black flood up the sides of the building. The aliens. The black wave just engulfed the rooftop. Oliver didn't see the four people within the black; he got a feeling of dread.

The marine helicopter flew away from New York, leaving anything there to fight for itself. But plans had been made for New York's sanitation…


End file.
